Dave Allen: Giants get the gift, but Reds earn the victory in Game 1

IF PLAYOFF teams make their own breaks, maybe it also can be said that championship teams know how to capitalize on their opponent's bad fortune.

When Cincinnati Reds ace pitcher Johnny Cueto grabbed his hip and limped off the mound after just one out in the first inning of Saturday's first game in the National League Division Series Major League Baseball playoffs, everyone at AT&T Park knew the Giants had just received probably the luckiest break of the series.

But it just didn't turn out that way as the Reds beat the Giants 5-2.

Cueto left the game to a chorus of giddy Giants fans cheering his injury. If karma picked sides, it moved to the Cincinnati side at that moment.&nbsp;Sure, you'd prefer the fans didn't hoot and stand as the opponent's injured man was removed (even if it is their 19-game winner with a 2.78 earned-run average), but the uneasy feeling was more than just distaste.

The veterans in the Cincinnati dugout know how to circle the wagons. Manager Dusty Baker has been in tougher situations then that (see 2002 World Series and 2003 NL Championship Series). So has Reds pitching coach Bryan Price, the Tam High graduate who just logged his 13th season as a big league pitching coach. The braintrust gathered on the mound after Cueto's injury, had a quick chat and came up with a plan.

"I'm really proud of my fellow pitchers. But not just them, I'm really proud of the hitters," Cueto said through a translator. "They picked me up today."

Remember the widespread worry the Dodgers would pass the Giants&nbsp;after Melky Cabrera's drug suspension? Instead, the Giants collectively said, "We'll just have to do it ourselves." From the day they traded for all those All-Stars the pressure was on the Dodgers, considering the raised expectations.

The same equation held here on Saturday night. With help from reliever Sam LeCure (the pitcher who came in for Cueto and kept the Giants scoreless for 1 2/3 innings), the Reds turned to their ace in the hole, renowned Giant killer Mat Latos. As the scheduled Game 3 starter on Tuesday, Baker and Price kept their options open for later in the series, while giving themselves the best possible shot to win Game 1.

Meanwhile, the Giants' hitters tightened up. The team that was so comfortable playing the role of "nobody thought we could do this" down the stretch seemed an ill fit for the role of "don't blow this opportunity."

To make matters worse, Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain wasn't razor sharp and the Reds hitters were swinging from the heals. Home runs by Brandon Phillips in the third and Jay Bruce in the fourth further fueled the Reds' confidence. By the time Buster Posey finally broke through with a solo home run in the sixth inning off Latos, the Giants' dye was cast.

"When Johnny went down I thought, 'Aw, man, that sucks. Why, why?" Phillips said. "But after I talked to him on the bench, we thought, 'Why not? Why not win this for Johnny?'"

None of this is to say the Giants will lose the series or lose Game 2 on Sunday. Madison Bumgarter, Sunday's starting pitcher for the Giants, shut down the Texas Rangers in the World Series the last time he had an October start and -- certainly -- he could do it again.

But what could have been the break of the series for the Giants in the first inning on Saturday quickly turned into the break of the game for Cincinnati. If the Giants expect to make it to the next round, they can't let something like that happen again.